Knitting machine cylinder



March 22,- 1932. H; SWINGLEHURST KNITTING MACHINE CYLINDER Filed Dec. 16, 193Q T ial: I

INVENTIOR HARRY SWINGLEHURST all? aiiarneys- Patented. Mar. 22,. .1932

Umrraio STA-TESS PATENT OFFIGIVE HARRY SWINGLEHUR-ST, or oEANeE; NEW. JERsEY. nssrenon; To soo'r'r' AND WILLIAMS, inc, oEnEw YORK, 11. Y., A-coaroRA'rroN or MASSACHUSETTS I KNITTING MACHINE CYLINDER.

Application filed December 16, 1930. Serial No. 502,762.

This invention relates to cylinders for circular knitting machines, and more particularly to the walls of the needle cylinder.

As shown in the patent to Harry Swingle- 8 'hurst, No. 1,115,129, October 27, 1914., a slotted surface for the needle'cylinder of a circular knitting machine can be built up by'inserting strips of metal, called inserted walls, into slots cut into the periphery of the cylinder. The function of these walls is to guide the needles as they slide up and down during knitting. Due to the large number of walls that are needed and the shape'of the walls as heretofore made, the tongue of metal left in the cylinder between adjacent cuts or slots heretofore has been comparatively thin. As

a result, in cutting the slots, the crowding of the chips at the bottom of the cut often caused the tongues to bend sideways or tear out.

Another disadvantage of this prior construction was that, in order to take care of walls which become'bowed slightly in hardening and were not properly straightened afterwards, it was necessary to carry the narrowing of the projecting portion of the wall, beneath the periphery of the needle cylinder instead of beginning it at the periphery. In other words the shoulder of the wall had to be cut so as to lie beneath the periphery of the cylinder. This reduced the wearing surface available to flat backed needles.

My present invention is designed to over come the disadvantages of the prior structure.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a sectional plan view of part of my improved inserted wall cylinder.

Fig. 2 is a" view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modification of my invention.

Fig. 3 is a perspective of one of the walls constructed according to my invention.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the cylinder 10 of a circular knitting machine has the walls 12 inserted into the longitudinal slots 14 which are cut into the cylinder. The projecting portions 6 of the walls 12 are made the same width as heretofore and one side of each wall is tapered toward the other so as to cause each surface of each wall 12, when inserted in its slot, to be parallel to the surface of the neighboring wall, as described in the above mentioned patent.

The portions a of the walls, which portions occupy the slotsand serve as ananchorto hold the walls in place are cut to anar rower width than the projecting or needle guiding portions 7), thereby leaving a wider tongue 15 in the cylinder between each slot:

than heretofore. Thus the danger of bending or tearing out the tongues is diminished by my invention.

Making the inner portion a of the walls narrower than the outer portion 5 causes a riphery of the cylinder; The extent of the wide and narrow portions 1) and aand'the depth of the slots 14 may be so regulated that the shoulder rests on the periphery, of

the cylinder as shown in Fig. 2,, in which case there may. be a clearance between the bottomof the slot and the bottom of the wall; or as shownin Fig. 1 the wall may rest upon the bottomof the slot, in which case, the

shoulder preferably clears the periphery of the cylinder as shown at 17 the clearance'being great enough to insure that the edge of the anchor portion of the wall seats firmly on thebottom of the slot regardless of slight"v variations in the'dimensions of the slot and In either case the walls anchor portion. do not need to be straightened after hardening, since no diiiiculty arises even though the walls are bowed a considerable amount.

The reason for this is that the'tongues between the slots are strong enough to withstand the strain incident to inserting bowed walls. Furthermore this construction compels bowed walls to straighten out when they .90

are inserted into the slots. This invention alsoeliminates the upwardly directed shoulder of the prior'art upon which shoulder a needle could rest. It isimpossible for the shoulder 16 to be formed adjacent the pe- 1 plicable to beds for jacks or other knitting instruments as well.

I claim 1. A needle bed having slots, in combination with needle-guiding walls, each wall having a thick guiding portion and having a thinner portion inserted in one of said slots, the entire surfaces of the respective guiding portions of adjacent walls which comprise the lateral guides for any given needle being plane and parallel.

2. A needle bed having slots, the sides of each slot being parallel, in combination with needle-guiding walls, each wall having a thick guiding portion and having a thinner portion inserted in one of said slots, the entire surfaces of the resepctive guiding portions of adjacent walls which comprise the lateral guides for any given needle being plane and parallel.

3. In combination with a knitting machine c linder having slots, walls inserted in said s ots for guiding knitting instrumentalities, said'walls having a guide portion and an anchor portion, the guide portion being thicker than the anchor portion, forming a shoulder facing the cylinder, said shoulder resting upon the periphery of the cylinder to locate the wall.

4. The combination with a knitting machine cylinder having slots, of needle-guiding walls, each wall having a thick guiding portion and having a thinner portion inserted in one of said slots, the entire surfaces of the respective guiding portions of adjacent walls which comprise the lateral guides for any given needle being plane and parallel.

5,. The combination with a knitting machine cylinder having a series of slots, walls insertedin said slots, said walls having a wide needle-guide portion and a narrower anchor portion, whereby the distance between the needle-guiding surfaces of adjacent walls is less than the distance between the sides of adjacent slots.

6. In a knitting machine, a bed having slots, walls inserted in said slots for guiding instrumentalities, said walls having a guide portion and an anchor portion, the guide portion being thicker than the anchor portion, and the adjacent surfaces of adjacent Walls which comprise the lateral guides for any given instrumentality being plane and parallel.

7. A -bed for instrumentalities of a knitting machine, said bed having slots, walls inserted in said slots for guiding said instrumentalities, said walls having a guiding portion and an anchor portion the guiding portion being thicker than the anchor portion, and presenting a shoulder between the two portions, the anchor portion being of a size and dimension to fit the sides and bottom of the slot without clearance.

' 8. In a knitting machine, a bed having 

